Setting Location and Language in AdWords

Location Settings in AdWords

The cool thing about setting locations and languages is that, as it the title gives away, you can set your ads in whatever locations you like and also target customers by location. For Irish businesses, it is especially important to have their ads appear on Google.ie. It’s very simple-go to ‘Campaigns’ and find your online campaigns. The +Campaign button will allow you to update the settings of your campaign, where you will see ‘Locations and Languages’. Adjust accordingly. Don’t forget to save your changes.

It’s easy to set up an ad location where you can filter by ad location such as city, state, postal code, TV region and much more. But how can you be more specific when choosing a target location for an AdWords ad? Have a look below for all your location options for Search and Display Networks.

-People who search for pages about your targeted locations (default), i.e. Susana from Spain searching a hotel destination in Dublin City Center.

-People already in a targeted location, i.e. James searching for a hotel in Dublin City Center.

What is the best targeting location option?

Reach people who are in your target location or who search for a page in your target location. Don’t worry, if Dave is searching for hotels in Galway but he is located in Dublin City Center and your hotel is in Dublin, Google won’t waste your money in showing Dave a hotel just because he is in the same location, rather his search for Galway hotels will supersede.

Reaching people who are in your targeted location is an option you can take. I.e. if Dave is in Dublin and searches for a hotel in Galway, he will still see your ad about a Dublin hotel. Be careful, as if Sue who is located in Galway searches for Dublin hotels, she will not see your ad since you have chosen to only display ads to people in your target location which in this case is Dublin.

You want to reach people who are searching or viewing pages about your target location. Google is selective with this option when displaying your ad because if Ruarí was searching for Dublin News, your ad about a Dublin hotel may be irrelevant so Google won’t show him your ad.

You can adjust the target location for your ads or take away locations where you don’t want your ad to show. Depending on the size of your business, and whether it delivers abroad, targeting locations can be very useful to attract more clients. An example would be if Cecilia has a café in Dublin, there would be no point in advertising in Cork. She’d remove locations which she cannot serve. Radius targeting is also a great way to include areas nearby where you’d like the ad to appear.

A good tip to make sure you are allowed to modify your target location is to have ‘All features’ selected for either Search or Display Network campaign type.

Follow the same instructions to adjust your exclusion location option as you would when targeting location options.

If you have more than one campaign running and would like to set the same target locations for each one, go to ‘Campaigns’ settings and click on ‘Edit’ beside ‘Locations’, then select Advancedsearch and Bulk locations. Google AdWords will allow you to target up to 1,000 locations. That’s a lot! Excluding locations is just as easy. When you are making your advanced search, just click Exclude.

If you would like to make changes to your locations and you don’t have access to the internet, download the AdWords Editor.

But how does Google AdWords know how to match locations?

It depends on the searchers, where they are located and the domain they are browsing. Have you ever searched on Google Maps for a location and you suddenly get a suggestion of a theater, café, restaurant or pub? That is because Google is tracking a what a searcher is typing into Maps (e.g. Clondalkin, Dublin) and showing business ads near the area. If a searcher types ‘best furniture store in Dublin’, ads about furniture stores with their target location set in Dublin will appear, since the searcher specified ‘Dublin’.

If Ruth decided to browse for holidays in Spain online, but she used the Spanish domain www.google.es, Google will think she is in Spain because of this domain and she’ll see ads that have the targeted for searchers in Spain.

Google may also use Ruth’s IP address (Internet Protocol) to determine her location. If Ruth is signed in to her Google account, which has her location saved, ads that appear on the Display Network may be targeted to her location search.

If a searcher uses a mobile device with full Internet browsers, Google AdWords will inspect to see whether to show a geographically-targeted ad to that person. Google will look at the searcher’s specified location (e.g. typing ‘barbecues in Dublin’), or their Google Maps location, or if ‘My Locations’ is turned on. The Wi-Fi router location can also be identified, as well as the IP address or their Google Search History. Google knows everything!

Language Settings in AdWords

Perhaps one thing AdWords has yet to catch up on is to translate ads, but considering the inefficacy of Google Translate, maybe you’d prefer your ad to remain in its original language. With language settings you can choose to only display your ad on websites in the same language. If you own an international student exchange school and you would like to target Spanish students who wish to come to Ireland, you would write your ad in Spanish, set your language option to Spanish and this means that your ad will only appear to people whose interface is set to Spanish.

Additionally, Google tracks down the search history of a person and if their history shows that they visited Spanish websites or websites with content in Spanish, your ad may be shown to them. A searcher’s IP address is used to locate him/her. Best practice would be to set choose separate campaigns if you want to display in various languages.

Go to Campaigns, Settings and Languages. Next Edit and Save.

It is important to set locations and languages that are relevant to your target audience. Make sure the location is ideal, that you exclude unwanted locations where you wouldn’t want your ads to show, and if your business is in Ireland, set English as the ad language.